Messengers of the Gods
by Arcane Aegis
Summary: The gods are forbidden to directly interfere in mortal affairs. They cannot directly influence humanity, but their emissaries have no such restrictions. Disgusted and dismayed with the ninja system, the Tailed Beasts were sent to put an end to all shinobi. Struggling with poisonous allies and hidden enemies, Naruto Uzumaki must uncover the truth in the lies... before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1: The Break

**Chapter 1: The Break**

* * *

After a loud noise, the human ear will perceive dampened sound as it tries to repair damage to the eardrum. When this happens, the adrenal glands release a burst of their finest hormone, jolting the body into a defensive state. The pupils dilate, the hearbeat races, and conscious thought is replaced by an eclectic mix of instinct and training.

Naruto looked around helplessly, his hearing damaged by the colossal bang of the explosives. The horror of seeing Tazuna's bridge, the last hurrah of Wave Country, sink into the ocean was replaced by terror. Ahead, the unfazed Kakashi unveiled his sharingan, searching through the mist kicked up by the explosion. To the right, Sasuke looked ruffled but otherwise prepared, a windmill shuriken clenched in his right hand. Behind, Sakura looked as fearful as he felt, holding a kunai with two hands and circling Tazuna nervously.

Zabuza had obviously been ordered to destroy the bridge by Gato, likely after hearing that the famous Sharingan Kakashi had been assigned the mission to protect the architect. Now, however, it seemed Tazuna was a symbol of hope for the people of Wave. As long as he lived, the reign of Gato's corporation couldn't be complete. The Demon of the Mist would have been ordered to take the old man out. Which meant…

"Sakura!" Naruto screamed, whipping around and dashing towards his stunned teammate. Just as he reached and passed her, the kubikiribocho's razor edge swung through the white haze. He blocked the strike with a kunai, slashing wildly through the mist at where Zabuza's body should have been. The knife met nothing but air, and Naruto quickly abandoned the tactic to rejoin Sakura by Gato.

Kakashi, turning away from the bridge, used his sharingan to locate the telltale swirls that moving objects made in the mist. Sasuke was still visible, but he could only find the faint outlines of Sakura, Naruto and Tazuna. Zabuza remained out of sight, somehow able to move without stirring the fog. The veteran ninja's analytical mind decided that the best place to be was within arm's length of Tazuna.

Sasuke fell forward with a grunt, a senbon forged from ice and chakra burying itself just above his kidney. He launched into a roll, rocking to one side to avoid another hail of icy needles. The shinobi masquerading as a Kiri hunter ninja jumped from the zenith of a nearby boulder, Ice Release dancing at his fingertips. Sasuke spared a moment to curse his own naiveté in trusting the unknown ninja before unsheathing and throwing a windmill shuriken. The oversized weapon missed Haku by a hair's breadth, opening Sasuke up to an answering volley of senbon. Only one impacted with him, on his leg, and from the way Haku cocked his head Sasuke assumed it had missed the intended target. He tugged lightly on the ninja wire trailing from the shuriken, and a trace of chakra raced down the line and abruptly changed the weapon's trajectory.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Haku intoned in his feminine voice. "Second of the last two members of your clan, survivor of a genocide almost a decade ago, and a prodigious shinobi." He smiled bitterly behind the mask. "Had you manifested your clan's bloodline limit, we would be remarkably similar." The slender boy leapt into a backwards somersault over the windmill shuriken, though Sasuke had the foresight to direct it upwards after him, followed by yet another hail of senbon. Sasuke drew a kunai from his weapons' pouch and charged forward, knocking the thin projectiles aside as he converged on the place where Haku would land. When he did, Haku slammed a black sandal into Sasuke's forearm, who retaliated by ducking to the ground and lashing out with a reverse slash. Haku dropped as well, and the two engaged in a fierce taijutsu fight, with Haku only slightly outclassed by the vicious Uchiha.

Meanwhile, Kakashi bit his thumb and spread the blood on his hands, coating them in a thin sheen of red. When Zabuza next veered out of the mist, his titanic sword swinging fervently, he was nearly able to deflect the blow and smear some of it onto the Demon's clothing. At the last second, he realized that the attack's target was none other than Sakura, whom he promptly tackled to the ground.

"Go..." he muttered angrily, shoving the pink-haired genin away from him. He rolled in the opposite direction, and a split second later the kubikiribocho sank into the ground between them.

"Wha...?" she exhaled, at a loss for words.

"Help Sasuke!" he ordered, and finally she managed to stand up and get away from the rogue ninja and his target. Kakashi supposed it wasn't entirely her fault; none of his students were equipped to fight the Demon and his apprentice. He only hoped that a three-on-one would hold the fake hunter ninja away. His sharingan recorded and catalogued her slightly limp and laboured breathing, suggesting that his tackled had broken a rib. He consoled himself with the prospect of beating the nonsense out of _all_ of them when they got out of this mess.

Kakashi spread his legs, and the oversized butcher's knife slammed dangerously close to his groin.

"Seems you have a sense of humour, Kakashi," Zabuza remarked, and the battle was on as the Leaf ninja began running through hand seals.

* * *

Naruto backed up until he reached a scattered fragment of the bridge. Behind it, his recovering ears picked up the sounds of a potential survivor of the mayhem, a man lying on the ground and breathing heavily. He didn't lift a finger to help him, because his body felt heavy. Too heavy to move, too shocked to fight. In his peripheral vision, a flash of pink collided with a black blur, and Sakura was brought low by a masked ninja's bare fist. She barely made a sound as she dropped, the air going out of her in a light gasp. Sasuke picked up her slack in the fight, but it was painfully obvious that it was a losing battle. He didn't even _know_ where Kakashi and Tazuna were.

_'Damn it, I'm being useless!'_ he berated himself. _'But what can I do? With this fog in the way, I can't even go and make sure Sakura isn't trampled!'_

"Kai!" Naruto exclaimed, hoping that perhaps the Concealing Mist was just a genjutsu. Sadly, with the fight taking place next to a river, and Zabuza had plenty of chakra, enough to keep the real mist in place.

"I need to—"

In the next instant, Naruto was abruptly detached from reality and drawn into a waking dream. The speed of the shifting mist slowed to a crawl, then stopped entirely. There was a gut-wrenching pull behind his navel, and suddenly he was rocketing into the sky. Unsurprisingly, there was very little above the layer of clouds, perhaps due to the fact that even if there was, Naruto had no idea what, and so his subconscious simply made it empty.

That is, except for the nine-tailed fox. Standing tall against the heavens, the fiery spirit stood rigid as golden chains pierced its flesh, trailing up into the sky until they vanished into the sun. Massive, ethereal shackles bound the fox's paws to each other and the clouds, and a white tag marked '9' hung around its neck. Nine ruddy tails marked it as none other than the Kyuubi.

"Uzumaki," said the fox in a deep, rumbling voice.

"D-d-demon!" Naruto shrieked, not at all in a girly way.

"Demon?" the fox snorted. "Your kind simplifies too much. To call me a demon is to call clouds white, or the sky blue."

"The sky _is_ blue," Naruto pointed out.

"Only some of the time," was the cryptic reply. "That is neither here nor there, however, as I've brought you here for a reason, and time is short. Hatake is an even match for Momochi, but the Uchiha will be overwhelmed soon. Without my intervention, your team is doomed. I offer you my power, which is undoubtedly enough to subdue both of your opponents."

Naruto squinted up at the giant kitsune, looking pensive. "Iruka says I'm supposed to ignore you if you talk to me, ya know," he said suspiciously. "He says you want to get outta the seal and kill everyone in Konoha."

"In other circumstances, he may have been correct," the fox conceded. "In this case, however, I will grant you a fraction of my power as a sign of good faith."

"Huh?"

"We have much to discuss, and one tail should suffice in your current predicament."

"But the Hokage said—"

The fox growled impatiently. "If you must know, there are drawbacks. Your seal was specifically designed to allow my chakra to flow into yours, but there is still inherent danger in hosting too much energy in your body. As well, that much chakra may make it difficult to... focus."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto shot back. "Well, bring it on, demon! I ain't afraid of power!"

"Perhaps you should be."

With that, one of the flailing tails deviated from its erratic path and smacked Naruto down. He tottered backwards, the immense heat from the tail setting his imaginary clothes on fire, and then he was falling from the sky...

* * *

Kakashi wasn't doing as well as he should have been. Zabuza may have been from the finest generation of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, but his sword was the weakest of them. If it was Fuguki Suikazan or Ameyuri Ringo, his current abysmal performance might have been acceptable, but Zabuza's blade was a bit player! Hell, in terms of performance his father's White Light Chakra Sabre was easily the better weapon. Yet here he was, back flat against the ground as he rolled desperately to avoid being peppered with stab wounds by the kubikiribocho.

Zabuza hefted the mighty sword like it was a toy and drove it at Kakashi's ankles. The Copy Ninja leapt over the strike, but the following kick caught him squarely on the hip. He skidded backwards, almost realizing too late that he was now over the water between Wave and the Land of Fire's eastern shore. A quick pulse of chakra stabilized him over the lapping waves, but now Zabuza was laughing.

"If you can get out of this, then I deserve to die!" he roared. He dropped the kubikiribocho, ran through nine hand seals, then threw himself onto his belly and shoved his left arm into the surf up to the elbow. The ocean around Kakashi rose up and crashed over him, and the last thing he heard before the ninjutsu dragged him under was, "Water Prison Technique!"

Elsewhere, Haku and Sasuke were discovering that neither had a significant advantage over the other. Both were fast, though Haku's offence and Sasuke's defence were slightly faster, respectively. After the third rain of ice needles, Sasuke had taken to blowing fireballs at them to melt the ice. Haku in turn had used his ability to freeze the ground in a massive circle around them, with Sasuke having to breathe fire over the ground or risk losing his footing.

He glanced furtively at Sakura, who lay still on the ground. Haku's ice was slowly creeping over her prone body, and Sasuke had to wonder if Kakashi would be angry for letting him die. It was her own fault for just walking into a fight between superior opponents. He sighed, distracting Haku with another shuriken hidden in a fireball, and then raced to her body.

Haku wasn't diverted in the slightest, and with a burst of speed he managed to reach Sakura first. He picked her up, gently, like a loving parent, and turned to face Sasuke.

"Do you think I am so heartless as to allow a girl to die, cold and alone?" he asked. "I do not approve of many things that ninja are required to do, but to kill in cold blood is beyond the pale, even for a tool."

"You sound so calm, like you think you know everything about the life of a shinobi. But do you really?"

"What makes you think I do not?" asked Haku.

In his arms, Sakura's left hand fell limply, the fingers trailing over her body on the way down. Her wrist caught on her weapons' pouch, then slid the rest of the way down. Her chest heaved, breathing laboured by her broken ribs.

"Because we aren't just tools," said Sasuke. "No man can completely subjugate his own desires in exchange for power."

_'It must be. Why else would my brother let me live?'_

"That, and you clearly aren't as perceptive as you think you are," he continued. "Even I would have heard the windmill shuriken coming from behind."

Suddenly alert, Haku strained his ears for the telling swishes of a four-pointed ninja star, but none came.

Sakura's hand, hanging below her body, held a kunai. Still in the mist, water had condensed on the metal's surface, and droplets were running down the blade. They gathered at the tip. One fell off, falling in slow motion from the point.

Sakura's eyes snapped open, and she thrust the knife into Haku's gut.

* * *

Naruto's senses came alive. Suddenly, his hearing and sense of smell were as powerful as his eyesight, and the tang of blood from all the way across the battlefield felt alive and sickening on his tongue. His soul was immolated, flames burning under his skin as demonic chakra burnt through his body. Then they were no longer contained within him, and with a cry of pain a hazy aura of chakra burst out of him.

He fell forward onto hands and knees, biting his tongue to prevent himself from crying out in agony as the red chakra swept through his body. His muscles clenched, and it took ever ounce of his stubborn willpower to stand up and assess the situation. Haku was nursing a potentially fatal wound to the belly as Sakura and Sasuke closed in, but his sensei had run out of steam long ago. Just below the surface of the water, he could _sense_ the man struggling to reach the surface. Zabuza was... defenceless, actually, having to lie on the ground in order to manipulate the water. Naruto smiled grimly and surged forward.

Just as he reached him, Zabuza's instincts took hold and made him roll out over the water, keeping one hand in the ocean as he went. Naruto snarled and took a step forward, but the ocean failed to hold his weight. It figured that he was a jinchuriki and _still_ couldn't walk on water.

"Huh," Zabuza commented. "You know, I couldn't understand how you obnoxious twits managed to defeat Gozu and Meizu. But now... now I can see what happened. You're a vessel, the nine-tailed fox sealed into human form. But now, what I don't understand is why you showed them mercy. I thought jinchuriki were mindless beasts in battle, like the Mizukage." He spat the name like a curse.

Naruto wasn't really listening to him. His partial use of the first tail was extraordinarily painful, and he had to focus on winning or risk destroying himself._ 'I can't reach him with taijutsu, my ninjutsu is too close-ranged and I don't know any genjutsu. I don't think the Kyuubi can help me with throwin' shuriken, and as it is I won't be able to hit him. Damn it, he can reach me with that huge sword too. Thanks, you really bailed me out here, demon.'_

Zabuza eyed the red hue of Naruto's cloak and considered his options. Kakashi was nearly dead, and Naruto needed to be taken care of. He withdrew his hand from the ocean and began forming hand seals.

"Water Dragon Bullet!" he announced dryly, as the ocean behind him rippled up. Naruto cursed and jumped back, dodging the dragon's initial flyby. The watery beast emitted a gutteral roar and soared into the air, twisting around to come back.

_'You honestly can't finish this yourself?'_ said a voice in his head. _'I've had some clueless hosts in my time, but you don't even know what the hell you're doing!'_

"Yeah, well, whenever you're ready to help, that'd be great," Naruto grunted. He sprang six feet into the air and managed to defy gravity long enough to evade the dragon, but his perception of the dragon was weak. It was silent and smelt only of salt, which wasn't much use in a cloud of mist. Worse, Kakashi was still dying (he refused to consider the alternative) and he didn't even know what was happening to Sakura and Sasuke.

_'As you wish. Look at my energy. Notice how it contains two parts? For now, call them 'white' and 'black'. Try and separate them.'_

As the water dragon spiralled into a corkscrew directly over his head, Naruto reflected on how mad his life had gone in the last six minutes. Then, dodging a thrown weapon from Zabuza, he mentally pried into the Kyuubi's chakra. In fact, there were two parts, though Naruto noticed that there was quite a bit more black than white.

_'Good. Now, gather some amounts of both the black and the white. A ratio of 8:2 is the most stable way of doing it, so you'll need four times as much black as white.'_

Naruto cursed, but did as the fox said. Something told him that now was not the time to mention his inexperience at controlling chakra.

* * *

Haku didn't even bat an eye as he removed the kunai. His wound spurted a few drops of blood, but the ice gathering at his fingertips allowed him to close the gap and seal it. Together, Sasuke and Sakura began slowly stripping away his defences, each punch and kick robbing him of a little more stamina, and making the pain in his chest spread higher and higher. Eventually, Sasuke's low kick made way for Sakura to chop viciously across his neck from behind, and Haku decided enough was enough.

As he stumbled away from them, reeling from Sakura's attack, he summoned the last dregs of his chakra and summoned the icy mirrors. The drawback in creating that much water was the depletion of Zabuza's mist technique, but the array of mirrors cut off any potential rescue. Haku reached into his robes and numbly chewed a soldier pill, ignoring the flaming pain in his ribs, and then stepped into the nearest mirror.

Sakura too was nursing a fiery bruise on her chest. The Demon of the Mist had been courteous enough to not kill her, but the broken rib was digging evilly into her lung. Any harsher exertion might just puncture it, but by that point Haku would probably have killed them both. Whatever ability he'd used to create almost two dozen copies of himself was surely chakra intensive, a sign that he wasn't nearly as battered as the two genin had hoped for. Sakura readied another knife, just as Sasuke formed the seals for another fireball, and together they faced the spray of senbon.

* * *

_'This is... adequate,'_ the kitsune judged. Naruto's fledgling attempt and generating a Tailed Beast Ball were fraught with chakra burns and frustration, with the clock of Kakashi's life hanging in the balance. He readied the projectile, which swirled with the burning power of a tailed beast, and aimed for where he knew Zabuza to be.

_'No. As a human, you've trained to throw weapons with your hands, but Tailed Beast Balls are always shot from the mouth, if not generated there.'_

"What do you want me to do, eat it?" Naruto asked aloud, as the water dragon aligned itself directly between him and Zabuza.

_'Yes. I wouldn't recommend swallowing, though.'_

Naruto looked down at the basketball-sized sphere and groaned. With a jolt of discomfort, his jaw unhinged. Now armed with a mouth roughly twice as large as it used to be, Naruto crammed the chakra into his mouth, pointed it at where he knew Zabuza to be, and fired. The Bijudama surged forward, trailing traces of black as the fabric of reality parted in front of it. As it passed over the shoreline, the velocity of the ball kicked up a wake of water, almost like a comet's tail. The water dragon, now racing forward at him, opened its mouth to swallow the ball... and was promptly reduced to fog as the heat built by friction boiled the water. The terrified look on Zabuza's face was priceless, right before the ball disintegrated his abdomen. The Demon of the Mist's legs and upper body fell into the water, the latter half dragged down by the nigh-invulnerable kubikiribocho.

Naruto sank to his knees, nearly exhausted. His eyes roved the waves, searching for something, anything that could suggest that his sensei had survived.

With a shuddering gasp, a shock of white hair burst from the water. Defying gravity even while soaking wet, Kakashi's mask was now hanging down by his lips, though it still did an admirable job of hiding his face. Whatever he felt at seeing Naruto covered in demonic chakra with his mouth hanging open like a snake's was overshadowed by relief. Then, it turned to horror.

"SASUKE! SAKURA!" he screamed, for once breaking the calm demeanour of a jonin and desperately dragging himself towards shore.

Naruto spun around and assessed the situation through the rapidly clearing fog. It was only by instinct that he manifested four chakra arms, and it was only by instinct that they intercepted Haku between two mirrors.

It was not by instinct, however, that they crushed the aspiring ice wielder into a bloody pulp.

* * *

Kakashi took a good ten minutes or so to stop hacking his lungs out. A few seconds before the end, he'd given in and inhaled the water to calm the burning in his lungs. ANBU training reminded him that the need to breathe was caused by nitrogen in the blood, but for all his strength he couldn't resist. Now, he was paying the price. Very, very slowly, his greying vision began to clear. A few feet away, Naruto was panting heavily, the nine-tails' chakra having dissipated into the environment. Just beyond him was a red, mushy pulp which might have once been a human being. Sakura lay on top of Sasuke both children comatose and bleeding from hundreds of tiny cuts. As he watched, Sakura's torso spasmed, and she coughed blood. Her lung was obviously pierced, possibly collapsed. Zabuza was nowhere to be seen.

He stood up, feeling three times his age and stiff as a board. Kakashi skirted Naruto and the bloody mess to get to Sakura, who needed the help badly. He rolled her body off of Sasuke's, face up, and pulled out a blood-replenishing pill. Sending up a prayer to any deities who were listening, he slid his fingers around the errant bone and pulled. For the second time in as many minutes, Sakura's eyes shot open unexpectedly, and she screamed bloody murder at the realignment. Kakashi took the opportunity to shove the replenishing pill down her throat, which she nearly choked on before swallowing. He turned back around and headed towards Naruto, fingers brushing against a soldier pill.

"Look what we have here, fellas," came a low, corpulent voice. Warily, Kakashi turned around to face the oncoming threat. Accompanied by an entourage of samurai and other assorted soldiers was none other than Gato, the man who'd hired Zabuza to kill Tazuna in the first place.

"Leave," said Kakashi, his voice hoarse, but he knew the plea fell on unhearing ears.

"I knew Zabuza was too weak to handle you," Gato observed smugly. "Originally, I planned for you and him to tucker each other out so I could finish you both off, but this is almost better! Now, I don't have to pay that gilt bastard or his fairy-boy, and you're the only person between me... and that bastard Tazuna." The businessman's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You look like a drowned rat, Copycat Kakashi. Surrender, and I'll let you and your team leave in one piece. Otherwise..."

The man gestured at the fifty or so men standing behind him. "What's it going to be, huh?"

Kakashi was acutely aware that he was wet. He'd never liked the water, and now he was thoroughly soaked. He looked down at his hands, hands that were dappled with moisture and felt creaky and rotten. Hands that had killed over and over again, every name of every dead ninja tattooed on them in blood. But water was worse.

"You know I can't do that," he said, his voice sounding distant and weak.

Gato nodded. "Fair enough," he said. "Kill him! Thirty thousand ryo to the man who brings me the sharingan!"

_Weapons are the lifeblood of a ninja, you must always take care to keep them in working condition or else they won't help you when you need them most. What good is a disarmed ninja, Kakashi? Good, make sure you oil your shuriken to keep them accurate and sharpen those edges, because a dull weapon is a useless weapon. Either fix them or throw them out, but don't throw a dull knife. Don't duel with a dull kodachi. Oh, Obito, the Chakra Sabre doesn't need to be sharpened! It's always sharp, always sharpening with lightning chakra. Never, _ever_ use a wet weapon. They're unreliable, dangerous, and they'll rust away before you know it._

Kakashi didn't dry his hands before he ripped into the horde of samurai, each armed with mediocre skills and the best katana money can buy. They were covered in blood anyways.

* * *

With Tazuna carrying Naruto and Kakashi hoisting Sakura on his back, the two of them managed to revive Sasuke and haul ass back to the village down the coast. Kakashi was quiet the whole way, acutely aware that Sakura had no hospital to get to and lacked the resilience of the ANBU he was used to working with. Tazuna was mostly quiet as well, probably understanding that he was, by proxy, guilty of the deaths of Gato and a platoon of men whose families would have to make do without the breadwinners. Sasuke only spoke a few words after he revived, mostly to vaguely protest pickpocketing the corpses and to ask how his teammates were doing. Neither request had been dignified with a response.

When they arrived, Inari had taken Naruto's advice to heart and mustered a militia, but too little too late. All Kakashi saw were a handful of poorly equipped farmers and merchants. It was kind of sad, because in his state they could probably take him. Remembering something, he languidly pulled his forehead protector over his left eye and cut the flow of chakra to the alien organ. Without the sharingan active, he very nearly dropped Sakura. Sasuke shot out a hand to steady him, and Kakashi gratefully took the support as he adjusted to the shift in bodily function.

"Go home, kid," the Uchiha said to Inari. The boy with the crossbow released his white-knuckled grip on the trigger, but nevertheless stayed where he was. A few of the younger members of the lynch mob drifted off, and some of the women took to chatting in the streets.

"I- I don't understand," Inari stuttered. "What happened to Gato?"

Kakashi staggered over to him and dropped to his knees. Sakura hissed in her sleep, and he rapidly switched his grip to relieve the pressure on her diaphragm.

"I killed him," he said simply.

"W- No way!" Inari screeched. In response, Kakashi simply held up his bloody, wet fists and waited for a reply.

"In this world, there are people with power, and people without," he said softly. "Sometimes it's money, sometimes it's skill, but only power can trump power. When somebody else comes to this island, trying to take your homes and lives - and that's _when_, not if - you need to gather your allies. Do this again, because without a hero even the strongest of spirits can falter."

They left, and Kakashi wondered if he'd done more harm than good. The crowd thinned and dissolved, largely in good spirits after hearing the news of Gato's death.

Tsunami, ever the faithful housewife, opened the door as they approached. She whitened at the sight of the bloodstained group, but nevertheless showed them inside. Tazuna promptly dumped Naruto on a kitchen chair and dug out a bottle of moonshine. Sasuke pulled up another chair at the table and began brooding, while Kakashi put his most injured student on a couch. He cut the red quipao dress away from her body and observed the—

"Shit," he hissed. "Sasuke! What the hell did that girl do to you and Sakura?"

"It was a boy," Sasuke replied stoically.

"_What did he do?_"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Haku attacked us with exceptional speed, possibly two or three times faster than myself. His primary weapon was senbon, enough to throw around like they were nothing. He can use Ice Release, a bloodline limit, which explains how he managed many of his ninjutsu."

Kakashi spared a milisecond to admire the potential of an endless supply of senbon, then felt exceedingly grateful that Naruto had killed him. In the same vein, he wondered how Naruto would deal with the trauma of having to kill not one, but two people. The fox was involved in this, there was no way one genin could kill two jonin-level opponents through such a thick mist, and Kakashi wondered how that would affect the outcome. Would it add or subtract guilt? Was the seal damaged? _Could any more go wrong with this mission?_

"Get Naruto out of the house!" he ordered frantically. The absolute last thing he needed was the Kyuubi to escape from the seal, and as little good as taking Naruto outside might do, it would at least give him the space to manoeuvre should he be the first line of defence between the fox and Konoha. Sasuke sent him a questioning look but nevertheless obeyed his commanding officer.

Kakashi went back to the more immediate problem of Sakura's wounds. They seemed shallow enough, but there were enough scrapes and lacerations that her skin between her armpits and navel was a bloody mess. He regarded the problem for a moment, trying to decide the best way to go about cleaning her up.

"Hatake," came a soft voice from behind him. Kakashi jumped at the sound, honestly startled by the silence in which Tsunami moved. Attributing it to his weariness, Kakashi forced himself to relax.

She held out a first aid kit, the red cross dingy from years in the dust. Kakashi accepted it, and together the began to disinfect and bind Sakura's torso. As they worked, Kakashi's mind began to slow, until he eventually ceased to think at all.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Edict

**Chapter 2: The First Edict**

* * *

Naruto had his own special hospital room. He'd only been there once before, when he'd fallen out of a tree and broken his arm when he was seven, but it was his nonetheless. The nurses told him it was made of reinforced concrete and located some four hundred meters beneath the hospital proper, reachable only by a secluded staircase and designed by the Second Hokage to contain the Kyuubi's first jinchuriki when she lost control of the beast. The last time he was here it was only a precaution, just in case the fox managed to take advantage of his injury. Now, he was here for one reason only: prevent it from reaching the surface in case the unthinkable happened.

With a swirl of smoke, the Third Hokage appeared in the room. His face, although lined and tired, still held the undeniable spark of warmth reserved for visits with Naruto.

"You've had quite the journey, haven't you?" the old man said. "I've received a mission report from Kakashi, but I think I'd like to hear your perspective on what happened on your first C-rank mission."

Naruto swallowed. "Eh, so we left Konoha with that old guy Tazuna, and we were doing okay until two guys with weird masks jumped out of a puddle and attacked us."

"Was the client the target?" the Hokage asked casually.

"Uh, yeah," Naruto answered. "We fought them a bit, but then sensei came back and kicked their asses. I got poisoned too, but then I bled it out and we kept walking. Then, when we were at the coast, another ninja ambushed us. He was way better than the first two dorks."

"Ah," said Sarutobi. "Team Kakashi encountered Zabuza Momochi on this mission, according to both Kakashi and Sasuke, but neither told me in any great detail what happened to him."

"Why's it matter?" asked Naruto.

"Missing ninja are tracked zealously by their home villages to protect secrets," Sarutobi said lightly. "If we could find Zabuza's body, we could glean secrets about the Seven Swordsmen and Kiri in general. However, I am more interested in _how_ you killed him. There was a second ninja whose corpse Kakashi was able to seal and retrieve... tell me, how did the four of you overcome two A-ranked adversaries?"

Naruto winced. "I... might have used the Kyuubi," he admitted. "I'm sorry, really! But if I hadn't, we would have all died! I didn't want to put anyone in danger—"

"Yet you did an admirable job of exactly that," the Hokage admonished. "Naruto, I thought we discussed this. The seal holding the demon in check is unstable, and allowing too much of its chakra through is a mistake. Understand that the kitsune is a dangerous liar, and will not hesitate to make promises that it intends to betray. As long as you depend on it to help you, you are not safe."

He sighed sadly. "I am not criticizing you for doing what you had to in order to protect your teammates, Naruto. Kakashi reports that you used a Bijudama, which is an incredibly advanced technique for a jinchuriki. Typically, they have to use much more of their tailed beast's power, so it speaks to your fortitude that you could manage it. I can't imagine what else you might have used to kill Zabuza, though I would have appreciated the kubikiribocho being in Konoha's possession."

"Sorry," Naruto muttered.

"How are you feeling?" asked the Hokage, drawing up a chair from the corner of the room and sitting placidly. He took out a pipe, already filled with tobacco, but refrained from lighting it.

"I feel... okay, actually," Naruto admitted. "I wasn't really hurt during the fight. It's just my jaw. Kinda hurts, probably from those loud cracks I heard when I opened my mouth. There's just this weird tingly feeling in my belly, like that time I ate some bad ramen and puked all over Ayami's apron."

Sarutobi frowned. "I see. Well, at present there are only two practiced fuinjutsu users in Konoha, including myself. Until I can get Jiraiya to come and look at your seal, I think I'll have a second opinion on the state of your seal. They'll be here in about an hour." He stood up to leave.

"Wait!" Naruto cried hoarsely. "How- how are Sakura and the bastard?"

"Sasuke, if that is who you referring to, was never admitted to the hospital. He recovered before returning to Konoha. If, however, you meant Kakashi, he is still dangerously low on chakra. I expect he will be fine before the day is out."

Hiruzen frowned. "Sakura, on the other hand, is in critical care. She was rushed back to the village by your sensei with severe lacerations to the torso and a broken rib. I spoke to her attending medic, who added a pierced lung to the list. Frankly, it's a miracle she's still alive. Momoe, however, believes that she will make a full recovery."

Naruto looked downcast. "Okay," he murmured. "When can I leave?"

"As soon as we're sure that the seal is undamaged," said the Hokage. "Good day, Naruto."

* * *

Naruto soon drifted off into what felt like a waking dream. It was Konoha... and yet it was not. He stood on the second tier of the library across from his apartment building, looking out over the village as it burned. Spreading out from the centre, flames licked slowly at the wooden buildings, turning them black. The Hokage Tower itself was toppled, the simple action writing the Leaf's obituary in Naruto's mind. The mountain was the same, but the Fourth's face had been defaced by a massive gouge in the monument, some titanic force having driven a fissure into the stone. The sky was dark, laden with black clouds and thick with the scent of ozone.

The Kyuubi stood proud over the remnants of the mighty village, unfettered save for a blue ribbon winding around its left hind leg, burrowing deep into the ground. Nevertheless, the demon's tails seemed noticeably dimmer, and it wasn't exactly leaping to devour him. Naruto supposed that his continued ability to draw breath meant that the seal was as secure as ever. The gigantic being peered down it him with eyes that glittered in the firelight.

"Thank you," said the demon, "for killing them. I am Kurama, patron of rage, and it's been far too long since I've been able and ready to kill ninja."

"That's kind of sick, but what else should I expect from the demon that wiped out so much of Konoha?" Naruto reflected. "Thanks for the power, I suppose, and the Bijudama was pretty cool too, but we're done."

"Really?" Kurama drawled, his tails swishing lazily in the evening breeze. "I was under the impression that we were going to have a discussion, and that you were going to stay here and listen to me. That's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

"No, that's what _you_ wanted," Naruto corrected. "I want to leave. In fact, I want a few bowls of ramen and a cool new jutsu, but since you can't give me either I'll take the leaving."

"On the contrary, I've given you both of those," Kurama said smugly. "The Tailed Beast Ball is an advanced skill, one which requires my cooperation to actually use. Certainly neither Mito nor Kushina could do it."

"Were they your jinchuriki before me?" asked Naruto.

"Indeed they were, and what a pair of self-righteous kunoichi they were," Kurama recalled. "I'm rather hoping you might be more amenable to what I have to tell you."

Naruto's face scrunched up, like he'd bitten into a dango and found it was lemon-flavoured. "Aren't you going to try and trick me or something?"

Kurama sighed. "On divine honour, I swear that nothing I tell you is falsehood. Satisfied?"

"Not really," Naruto admitted. "On the other hand, I don't see the ramen anywhere, and I don't think I have anywhere to be, so you may as well say whatever it is you have to say."

"Very well. Before I start, may I ask what it is you believe I am?"

"What is this, a trick question?" Trick question or otherwise, Naruto thought hard for a few moments before he answered the behemoth. "I think... that you're a kitsune demon, who escaped from whatever you were being held in to take revenge on Konoha for sealing you in it. Then, the Fourth Hokage saved everyone by sealing you in my belly."

"That's what you think _happened_, but what do you think I _am_?" Kurama stressed.

"A demon," Naruto said promptly.

"No," the kitsune rebuked. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

"What do you... no. There's _no way you could possibly be_-"

"Be what? Be a god?" Kurama laughed throatily. "No, I am not a god, for if I were then Konoha would not stand. I am merely an emissary."

"An angel?" Naruto giggled, suddenly overcome with mirth at the thought of a haloed Kurama clad in white robes sweeping its tail across the ocean and causing a hurricane. "Ain't angels supposed to have wings an' trumpets and stuff?"

Kurama sighed again, shifting angrily as the ribbon chafed at his leg. "That may be what you perceive an angel to be, but I assure you that I am one. As are my brothers and sisters, the other tailed beasts on earth. We were sent here on a mission, and it seems I must convince you to allow me to continue."

"Huh," Naruto muttered. "So, God is like, your Hokage or something? Yeah, okay."

"Not God," Kurama corrected. "The tailed beasts are the servants of Kazan, Lord of Fire and Eye of the Sun. We have a common goal, and it is his will that brings us here."

"So there are, uh, other gods?" Naruto wondered.

"There are four," Kurama confirmed. "Kazan, my father, is one; there is also Orochi, the Seneschal of Undeath; a powerful entity whose name is lost to history; and one who elevated himself to godhood: the Sage of Six Paths."

"Hey, I've heard of him," said Naruto. "Iruka says he's the guy who invented ninjutsu, right? But Sakura says that's just a legend to explain where all of the awesomeness comes from."

At the word 'chakra', Kurama hissed like a snake and began glowing with rage. Naruto hurried leapt away from the bright red kitsune as he vented his rage into the surroundings. With a tremendous bang, the rookery exploded in a shower of feathers and magma. Only when it was relatively safe did Naruto dare to return to the area by roof-hopping.

"_Chakra_," the Kyuubi growled. "That foul substance ought to be scourged by fire! It is a stain on the tapestry of creation!"

"Aren't... aren't you made entirely of chakra?"

Kurama muttered something that sounded like a curse, then answered his question. "I am no more made of chakra than you, imbecile. I am a manifestation of Lord Kazan's will, made of his rage given form and direction. I am here for a purpose, and that purpose gives me strength."

"_What_ purpose?" Naruto demanded, bristling over the imbecile comment.

"To kill all shinobi."

That wasn't much of a surprise to Naruto. From what little history the Hokage had given him on the subject of the Kyuubi, it had spent most of its existence hunting and destroying Hidden Villages. Smoke, Mud and Bark were three of several mentioned villages that the demon had swept away with its massive tails and crushing ire. It was only until the First Hokage had devised a way to create jinchuriki after the Battle of the End that the Elemental Nations experienced any peace from the threat of annihilation. What really puzzled Naruto was—

"Why?" he blurted out. Why did all ninja need to die? What possible grudge could a god carry against them?

"Because my Lord is a god of progress and enlightenment. Fire is a symbol of light and knowledge as well as heat and destruction," Kurama remarked. "Ninja are knives in the dark, serving both money and the whims of the Kage. Countless times, innovation and technology have been stifled by the hand of a ninja. Your profession is a bane to life itself, and the Hidden Village system is a flawed ideology. Until every last shinobi has been crushed beneath our paws, my siblings and I cannot rest."

"As soon as I get out here, I'm telling the Hokage that—"

"Hiruzen Sarutobi is a coward of the worst sort!" Kurama roared. "The third ruler of Konoha is everything the gods abhor: a murderer, a thief, and a liar! Were he not the leader of your city-state, I'm sure he would be a traitor, too."

"You take that back!" Naruto returned angrily. "He's a great leader, and I'm proud to serve him as a member of the Leaf Village! The Hokage would _never_ agree to kill innocent people!" It sounded strong, but a neglected voice in the back of his mind told him that Sarutobi had indeed killed and stolen in service to the Second, before taking the post of Hokage himself. He had even lied, saying that the Fourth had killed the Kyuubi instead of sealing it into a baby.

"You think him blameless?" asked Kurama. "I'll admit that Sarutobi is idealistic, but he lacks the drive to make the precocious notion of a Will of Fire reality. Humans are loyal only to themselves and their own interests, save for an exceptional few. How can you possibly believe in the innocence of a man who takes up the blade and kills?"

"Fine," Naruto seethed. "You want proof? I'll get your proof! If I can show you that the Hokage is a good man, you have to pipe the hell down! I'm sick of hearing all this bullshit about ninja needing to die!"

Kurama rolled his eyes. "And what if he is not?" the angel wondered. "Will you release me, then? If Hiruzen Sarutobi is any less than a saint, will you allow me free to purge ninja from the world?"

Naruto was struck by an errant thought. "How do I let you out?" he asked. "I mean, not that I plan to, but is it even possible?"

Shifting a bit, Kurama showed the ribbon winding down his left flank. "Cut it. It's immune to being burnt, torn or snapped, but a pair of scissors ought to do the trick."

Naruto thought for a bit. "Alright, if you win, I'll come back and we can talk some more. Sound fair?"

"I'm hardly negotiating from a position of advantage, so that will suffice," Kurama conceded. "Good day, Naruto. Enjoy your ramen."

* * *

Naruto awoke again, his mind awhirl with the possibilities of what the dem- angel had told him. If it were true, that meant that the whole of Konoha was in violation of divine will. That meant that Iruka was wrong, and Konoha was the bad guy! That meant that the Uchiha clan deserved to die! That meant that...

If it meant that, the Fourth Hokage had still done the right thing by protecting his home. Even if every ninja on the planet really did deserve to die, Minato Namikaze had no way of knowing that. Even if he did, he had sacrificed everything to Konoha. There was no way he could allow so many people to die, not without an explanation and perhaps not even then. Whatever else happened, Naruto refused to undo that act of devotion and doom all of Konoha.

The room was quiet for a few minutes, save for the buzz of Kurama's words in Naruto's skull. They pounded deafeningly against the barriers of his mind, demanding to be made into actions. He dropped his head into his hands and moaned, trying to shut the ideas out.

_Hiruzen Sarutobi is a sinner!_

_Chakra is an abomination!_

_All ninja must die!_

"No... no..."

"Naruto? I'm sorry, I need you to take your shirt off for a moment, please."

Naruto grudgingly opened his eyes and looked into the face of the speaker. She was a tall, dark haired woman, wearing the standard jonin jacket and red pants. Her most striking feature was her eyes, which were red throughout and laced with black. She looked a bit like Sasuke's mother, only Sasuke's mother had a softer face. His visitor looked weary, like she'd just run a marathon and still made time for the silly antics of children.

"What?" he repeated dumbly, staring into her captivating red eyes.

"Could you please take your shirt off?" the woman repeated. "I have to take a look at your seal."

"Sure." The shirt slid back over his chest, and the kunoichi took out an inkwell and a feather quill.

"Channel a bit of chakra," she commanded.

The seal appeared, bright blue and just as implacable as the man who made it and the beast it restrained. The woman smeared a new, smaller seal just above it and added some of her own chakra, creating new lines on Naruto's stomach as previously invisible parts of the seal were made visible.

The woman took out a magnifying glass and held it to a portion of the seal that looked a bit like a duck, if you squinted hard enough. She squinted, and Naruto thought that she might be looking for the bill or something to appear. He honestly didn't know much about fuinjutsu. The fact that something as powerful as a kitsune could be held back with paper and ink was mind-boggling.

_'Paper, ink and human sacrifice,_ _that is,' _he thought bitterly. _'That just makes even less sense. What does killing yourself hafta do with sealing something?'_

"I suspect that Minato wasn't able to seal all of the demon's chakra by himself," the woman drawled. Too late, Naruto realized that he'd spoken part of his sentence aloud. "In order to finish the ritual, I believe he needed to call on some higher entity to finish the job. Such a being would have demanded payment, and in a moment of desparation the Fourth offered his own life."

"You mean he summoned a god?" Naruto whispered, mouth dropping open in shock.

"Could be," the kunoichi agreed, moving the magnifying glass over another part of the seal. "A god, or a different demon, or maybe something we don't have a name for. The other main argument is that he simply burnt himself out in the process. I personally don't believe that, but who can tell? Only the jonin were in the village to see it, and I didn't have that rank until two years ago. All we know for sure is that he didn't die in battle, and that his corpse was completely drained of chakra.

She considered the seal. "I'm no expert in creating jinchuriki, but this seal looks undamaged. Of course, Minato was way out of my league, and this is so complex that for all we know, the Kyuubi might be escaping as we speak. On the bright side, that is a remote possibility at best, so I'll give the director clearance to discharge you."

"Gee, thanks for the reassurance," Naruto grumbled.

The woman stood up and put the sealing equipment back into her flak jacket. As an afterthought, she reached back in and pulled out a bundle of small scrolls.

"Here," she said, offering them to him. "These'll tide you over until the Hokage gets back."

After she left, Naruto bit his thumb and tentatively wiped a drop of blood over the first seal. Instantly, the paper disappeared, replaced by a piping hot bowl of miso ramen.

"Did... did you do this?"

Kurama's laughter echoed in his ears, drowning out the unpleasant thoughts as Naruto began to slurp down his belated lunch.

* * *

Kakashi was well and truly drunk by the time the Hokage called for him. In a haze, he had stumbled out of his hospital room while at the same time warding off nurses and hiding from medics. In all his years as a ninja, this was the worst case of chakra exhaustion he'd ever experienced. Chidori wasn't meant to be used so many times in the same week, much less on the same person. It was unbelievable that he'd even missed, and then to have his ass covered by Naruto of all people...

Well, there was only one cure for the bizzare and inexplicable: copious amounts of alcohol. As he sat in his quiet corner of the bar, nursing a glass of shochu, he ran over a fond list of the people who'd turned to drink. There was Tenzo, of course, who drank every once in a while when the stress of ANBU got to be too much. There was Genma, who was a natural alcoholic with a tolerance that was every bit as strong as his chauvinism. There was Tsunade, of course, who couldn't handle the death of Dan Kato and subsequent defection of Orochimaru. Kakashi looked pensive behind his mask for a second. Did Hayate drink? No, but his stoic inability to admit he was dying even while coughing his lungs out might have put beer on tap for Yugao.

"Sir," said a chunin. Kakashi peered over his shoulder at the boy. He was sixteen, maybe, and his face had a few bandages wrapped around it. His eyes were dark and unreadable in the shadows of the bar.

"Yeah, I'mon it," he said lazily. Normally, Kakashi went out with friends to mitigate the cost of drinking (by skipping out early and making them pay). He was alone, however, and one look at his escort told him he couldn't easily dupe the guy into paying. Reluctantly, he pulled out his wallet and tossed a few bills onto the counter.

"C'mon, le's go," he muttered drunkenly. He stumbled out of the establishment, the peeved chunin trailing behind to ensure he didn't bolt. As they left, the money on the counter vanished in a puff of smoke.

* * *

"Do you have any idea what happened on Team Seven's mission?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Y'know, I don' really," he admitted to the Hokage, as if it were just a slip in etiquette instead of a mind-blowingly stupid executive decision that smacked of incompetence and idiocy. Really, he should have known better than to fight an assassin in his native element with a genin cell present.

"Kakashi, you smell like a brewery," the Hokage said plaintively. "I expect more professional behaviour from one of my best shinobi. Please, go home and clean yourself up. We'll have this conversation later."

Kakashi leaned in. Finally, the weight of the sweat in his hair finally overwhelmed whatever dark magic he used to keep in upright, and most of it was immediately plastered to the side of his head. "Yer... kinda annoying," he confided. Sarutobi's jaw clenched, and he nearly bit the end of his pipe off.

"Get out. You're making a fool of yourself, Kakashi."

"I did that a'ready," Kakashi grumbled. "I went 'n fought some... some guy... Some guy nearly killed me!" he howled, slamming his fist against Sarutobi's desk. The Hokage didn't even flinch at the display of anger, and quietly motioned for the chunin honour guards to remain where they were. He was, in effect, stuck between comforting a distraught drunk and reprimanding a moronic decision. In the end, he decided to simply remove Kakashi from his office with judicious application of force.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital right now?" the Hokage asked innocuously.

"Uh..."

"I'm sure Momoe would be interested to know that you're out of bed with such severe chakra exhaustion. Perhaps we could inform her?"

Yes, if there was anything guaranteed to send Sharingan Kakashi scurrying it was the threat of hospitalization. Chuckling privately at the speed of Kakashi's retreat, Sarutobi glanced down at his desk. There was a backlog of requests from various clients. Most of these fell into two categories— assassination missions and the like, and protection missions. Appropriately, the more dangerous clientele were directed straight to the jonin lounge, while relatively safer missions with more black-and-white morality were provided for the younger genin and chunin. It was these that he currently shuffled through, idly discarding those that were misfiled or had the potential to backfire. Sarutobi supposed that sending Team Seven on such a dubious mission was partly his fault. After all, Tazuna had blatantly lied about his country of origin and other background information on the form for standard C-ranks.

On the other hand, such missions were typically sent with older genin cells anyways, because the off mission that went bad could be handled by the sensei. It was just misfortune that Kakashi had been unprepared for such an opponent. He picked up another C-rank mission, this one being an escort for a travelling merchant going from Fire to Lightning. He approved that for Team Eight, and idly looked over some of the border patrols that needed to be handled.

Then, a mission caught his eye. He looked over the details, scrutinizing it for facetiousness and deceit. Finding none, he smiled.

_'As soon as Haruno gets out of the hospital, Team Seven will have its next assignment.'_


End file.
